空间结构类型与街邻关系:城市社区整合的空间视角

本文基于2014年中国劳动力动态调查数据,探讨社区内部空间结构差异对街邻关系的影响,构建了三类社区空间结构：社区社会空间结构、社区物理空间结构和社区生态空间结构。研究发现,社区社会空间指标中社区职业异质性水平越高,街邻关系越差;社区中本地人口比例越高,社区居民的平均社会组织活动参与率越高,街邻关系就越好;居民参与成为人口异质性负效应的补偿效应。社区物理空间指标中隔离性设施（如楼宇门禁）和社区生态空间指标中失调型生态环境污染均会降低街邻关系水平;绿地覆盖率越高,街邻关系就越好。因此,在社区整合重塑中,降低居住区环境污染程度,建设友好型的社区生态环境,积极鼓励和促进居民参加不同类型的社会组织活动,是提升居民街邻关系的重要手段。     

Factors in Differential Utilization of Services by Urban Elderly

This paper examines the extent to which people aged 60 years and over living in the inner city of New York utilize community services. It was found that agencies providing income maintenance were utilized by the highest percentage of fhe respondents, followed, in order, by the police, religious organizations, and the housing authority. Among the lowest in reported utilization were voluntary social agencies such as settlement houses and family service agencies. There was also a low level of utilization of visiting nurse and homemaker services. Differences in utilization were found among ethnic groups represented in the population. Reasons for the low level of service utilization are discussed.     

Organizational affiliation and effectiveness: the case of rape crisis centers

Many rape crisis centers (RCCs) that were founded as autonomous organizations have affiliated with other organizations. The relationship of affiliation type and effectiveness is examined in a sample of 25 RCCs in Florida. Effectiveness is defined in terms of range of services for rape victims and involvement in rape prevention (social change) activities. The data show that 23 RCCs are affiliated with six types of organizations and two are free-standing. Each affiliation type has advantages and disadvantages but, overall, free-standing RCCs appear to be most effective and RCCs affiliated with community mental health centers, least effective. Of the seven types, free-standing agencies are most involved in rape prevention activities aimed at social change.     

Does partnership funding improve coordination and collaboration among early childhood services? – Experiences from the Communities for Children programme

Partnerships among service providers are an important aspect of human service delivery, including in the early childhood and family service sector. There is extensive international literature on factors contributing to partnerships – also termed service coordination, collaboration or integration – but little evidence of partnership outcomes exists where partnerships are a funded and mandatory component of large‐scale programmes. This paper reports findings from an evaluation of the Australian Government's Communities for Children (CfC) programme. Under CfC, partnerships were mandated and funded, and the evaluation findings show that the programme resulted in an increased number of agencies working together to support families with young children (0–5 years) and that working relationships between agencies improved. The effectiveness of these partnerships depended on funding for partnership activities and on organisational and practical factors.     

Unequal Partners? Local Government Reorganization and the Voluntary Sector

British local government has recently undergone its most far-reaching reorganization for twenty-five years. The impact of this reorganization was considerable within local authorities but it also substantially affected other organizations with which they worked at a local level. This paper explores the perspectives of voluntary sector organizations involved in social care: a set of actors which, prior to reorganization, had been encouraged by central and local government, through notions of partnership and through community care legislation, to undertake more direct roles in service delivery, consultation and strategic planning. During the consultative period prior to reorganization, many voluntary organizations reported that they had been marginal to the process. Reflecting on the process of reorganization itself, many voluntary organization respondents commented that it had been disruptive and provoked considerable anxiety. Post-reorganization, voluntary organizations felt that rebuilding of relationships was necessary and that the promise of partnership had meant little in practice at a time of potential crisis for local.     

Former Spouse Ties and Postdivorce Relationship Quality: Relationship Effort as a Mediator

ABSTRACT

One potential problem area in remarriages is problems with or ties to an ex-spouse. This study focuses on identifying factors central to the relationship dynamics such as relationship satisfaction and stability. Additional emphasis is placed on specific and targeted work in a relationship with the goal of improving it, and its potential mediating effect on any negative relationship between ex-spouse ties and low relationship quality. Using secondary data from the RELATionship Evaluation Survey (RELATE), a sample of 1,546 individuals in postdivorce romantic relationships was examined. The results indicate that unresolved issues and negative interactions with an ex-spouse are negatively associated with relationship quality, but effort to mediate this negative association shows promise. Practice recommendations include exploring how family service agencies and clinicians can better serve couples in postdivorce relationships. Further, a focus on the repartnered family system and a recognition of its difference from other family system types (i.e., first marriage) are important for agencies, clinicians, and researchers interested in providing services to stepfamilies and family life after divorce.     

Social Ties and Life Satisfaction of Older Persons:

Social ties, including family relationships, friendship ties, and community involvement are expected to inhance the life satisfaction of older people. But relationships among the social ties and the relative importance of these ties to life satisfaction remain unclear. To examine these relalionships, we analyzed data from more than 2,300 small-town Iowa respondents who were 50 years of age or older. Our results tended to support those reported in a previous article in this journal, particularly on the success of friendship ties and the failure of family relationships to predict life satisfaction. We found an even stronger relationship between community involvement and dissatisfaction with life, however. In addition, we analyzed data from four communities separately and found relationships varying substantially among them, thus influencing our conclusions.     

Dare to Care: Exploring the Relationships between Socio-Moral Climate,Perceived Stress,and Work Engagement in a Social Service Agency

Abstract

Human service professionals working in an interpersonal violence social service agency are at increased risk of experiencing emotional burnout, compassion fatigue, and high levels of stress, which may reduce work engagement, increase turnover, and ultimately negatively affect client outcomes. However, a positive organizational climate has the potential to buffer the negative effects of perceived stress on work engagement. Socio-moral climate is a behavioral-based organizational construct that assumes that workplace practices and procedures can impact employees’ attitudes and behaviors. This exploratory study (N?=?41) investigates the relationships between perceived stress, work engagement, and socio-moral climate in a social service agency serving survivors of interpersonal violence, comparing employees with direct interactions with clients in a shelter to those with indirect contact at a different location. Results of moderation analyses show that socio-moral climate significantly predicts higher work engagement, while perceived stress is negatively associated with work engagement; however, the interaction effect was not significant and there were no differences in perceived stress between both employees. Further research should continue to investigate the role of socio-moral climate on employee work engagement in social service agencies, which could improve the quality of services for their clients.     

The chain is never stronger than its weakest link: implementing a model of collaboration among agencies serving vulnerable children and adolescents

This article analyses agency collaboration to help vulnerable children and adolescents with complex social and psychological problems, examining the implementation of a formal collaboration model for these groups. This model, implemented in Västra Götaland, Sweden, involves five municipal agencies and five county council agencies in 49 different municipalities. Data were collected using two questionnaires sent to 355 lower managers and 424 professional representatives in the concerned organizations. The analysis demonstrates that there are differences in implementation results between the agencies, and that the differences are largely explainable by organizational self-interest and top management prioritization of collaboration model implementation. The main barriers to collaboration are factors modifiable by the agencies themselves, and perceived barriers decreased when the policy was working. The study suggests that managers of human service organizations must assume responsibility when implementing collaboratively, and that accountable professional and political leaders must rise above organizational interests to protect vulnerable citizens.     

Rolling Back the African State: Implications for Social Development in Ghana

The New Policy Agenda of the Reagan and Thatcher years has profoundly influenced aid flows from the industrialized countries of North America and Western Europe to the developing nations of sub‐Saharan Africa. The application of neo‐liberal principles to the disbursement of multilateral and bilateral aid for social development has resulted in the diversion of donor funding away from the public sector towards non‐governmental organizations. The consequences of relegating the role of the public sector in social development is explored through qualitative research conducted in Ghana with state‐employed community development workers. The study exposes how severe financial constraint within the state sector distorts the targeting of beneficiaries and social development activity. This differs from findings revealed by interviews with social development workers employed by international non‐governmental organizations. These indicate that such agencies are able to sustain effectively resourced fieldworkers who are in a position to form positive working relationships with beneficiaries. The circumstances of the Department of Community Development and its relationships with non‐governmental agencies in Ghana are used to explore the effects on state‐building of the New Policy Agenda in the sub‐Saharan region.     

The effectiveness of services marketing: perceptions of executive directors of gerontological programs

Interest in marketing services, as opposed to products, has gained considerable momentum in recent years. The author conducted a survey of human service executives in six metropolitan areas to gauge the current status and efficacy of marketing efforts in programs for the aged. Findings confirm that the majority of health and social service organizations now employ marketing strategies of some kind, although somewhat insensitive and inadequate. The most common indicator of marketing success has been increments in the number of clients served. Health organizations are significantly more likely to measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts than social service agencies. Agencies commonly employ multiple marketing strategies, with face-to-face approaches proving to be the most effective. Least effective are public service messages and commercials on television/radio. The author suggests recommendations for mounting more efficacious and sensitive marketing programs in the human services.     

Domestic violence, poverty, and social services: does location matter?

Objective. This study investigates whether or not domestic violence agencies are located in areas of need. Recent research indicates that community economic disadvantage is a risk factor for intimate partner violence, but related questions regarding the geographic location of social service agencies have not been investigated.Methods. Using Connecticut as a case study, we analyze the relationship of agency location and police-reported domestic violence incidents and assaults using OLS regression and correcting for spatial autocorrelation.Results. The presence of an agency within a town has no relationship with the rates of domestic violence. However, regional patterns are evident.Conclusion. Findings indicate that programs are not geographically mismatched with need, but neither are programs located in towns with higher rates of incidents or assaults. Future research and planning efforts should consider the geographic location of agencies.     

Third Sector In Transition – A Question of Sustainability for Community Service Organizations and the Sector?

Third sector organizations are transitioning towards entrepreneurial and managerial models as a result of quasi‐market strategies. This paper reports on the research findings of a survey of nonprofit disability organizations in Queensland and Victoria impacted upon by quasi‐market reform. Enterprising organizations were found to have made substantial change to organizational structures and systems, whilst more traditional organizations made few changes. All organizations demonstrated commitment to a social justice ethos. However across the organizational archetypes there were reports of an organizational ‘fragility’. It is argued that the problems of sustainability of community service organizations that existed prior to quasi‐market reforms remain. This implies community service organizations will experience ongoing difficulties in the post‐market era without further rationalization and change. A conceptual framework for sustainability of the community service sector is presented at the policy and organizational level.     

Utilizing a Required Documentation Course to Improve the Recording Skills of Undergraduate Social Work Students

ABSTRACT

Baccalaureate social workers respond to documentation and record-keeping demands of regulatory organizations that oversee or fund social service agencies. Learning to accurately document client needs, progress, and service delivery outcomes is important in ensuring that clients are receiving effective services. Despite the importance of documentation skills, many undergraduate social work programs do not provide sufficient curriculum content on client record keeping. The authors report the results of a study that examined changes in baccalaureate social work students’ perceptions of their documentation skills after completing a required documentation course. The sample size included 101 students at pretest and 97 students completing the post-test. Statistically significant findings show students perceived an increase in knowledge in three areas of documentation: 1) formats, 2) content, and 3) writing skills. The authors discuss implications for social work education and practice.     

Bureaucracy and Professionalism in the Social Services

A multidimensional approach to the study of bureaucracy and professionalism among 200 social service workers provides general support for two hypotheses. The conflict hypothesis is that, as perceived by the workers, the bureaucratic dimensions of hierarchy of authority, formalized rules, procedural specificity, and impersonality are inversely associated with workers' professionalism. The congruence hypothesis is that an extensive division of labor and a high degree of technical competence are positively associated with workers' professionalism. Results underscore the complexity of the relationship between bureaucracy and professionalism and suggests that only particular dimensions of bureaucracv are inhibitive of effective job performance by social work professionals. Conclusions point to directions for future research.     

Partnership and Performance of Community-Based Organizations: A Social Network Study of Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Community-based organizations (CBOs) generally face challenges of meeting clients’ complex needs with limited resources. Partnership development can be a strategy for the CBOs to expand capacity and improve performance. However, relevant evidence is scant and tends to lack a theoretical base. This study examines the relation between networking and performance of a CBO from the perspective of social network analysis. The sample consists of 15 CBOs relying on volunteers to provide primary care services for older adults in a suburban area of Taiwan. Data analyzed include an expert evaluation record, a sociomatrix data set denoting the CBOs’ relationships, and a focus group of the social workers supporting the CBOs’ services. The breadth, brokerage, and embeddedness of networking are measured by centrality indicators and are hypothesized as being beneficial for service performance in terms of effectiveness and innovation. The study reveals that brokerage and embeddedness of networking are positively associated with effectiveness. A CBO may enhance its performance by bridging less connected organizations that need the relationship or by partnering with other organizations that bring in information from many others, but a wide social network is not necessarily helpful. Future studies can strengthen the findings by employing large samples and advanced statistical methods.     

Services Provided by Elderly Volunteers

As the number of elderly persons increases, the social service needs of older Americans will grow too. To provide a variety of services, many social service agencies across the nation are helping the elderly organize to help themselves. This paper represents the second of a series of research reports derived from a federally funded research project to investigate the types of services that trained elderly volunteers provide to other elderly persons in the community. This paper presents a multivariate analysis of elderly volunteers who go beyond providing socializing and reassuring services and provide instrumental services. The independant variables are developed to capture the level of the physical and mental strengths of elderly volunteers. Theses strengths are psychological functioning, perceived health, psychological adjustment, and social resources. In addition, program-participation factors, such as the duration of participation in the volunteer project and the number of persons served, as well as variables related to demographic and educational backgrounds, are included in the analysis as controls. The major findings from this study are the following: (1) Among the independant variables, perceived health is a statistically significant predictor of a volunteer's becoming a provider of instrumental services; (2) The volunteer's level of education and the number of elderly persons served are also statistically significant predictors. One the whole, however, elderly volunteers perfer socialization and reasurance over instrumental services when they try to help other elderly persons.     

CREATING ‘CHILD‐FRIENDLY’ COMMUNITIES: A STRATEGY TO RECLAIM CHILDREN FROM RISK

A review of the scope and characteristics of the problems facing Australian children and adolescents. Such issues as poor mental health, substance use and abuse, delinquency, violence, school drop‐out rates, youth unemployment and suicide are explained in terms of shortfalls in community endeavour to protect families from risk factors associated with structural and social change. A strategy to reduce vulnerability is proposed, which would involve mobilising government, independent and informal local community sectors to support parents and encourage healthy, pro‐social development. Sustaining the quality of social environments close to children and families requires a process of community capacity‐building, including a renewed emphasis on participation and democracy and better coordination between local service agencies.     

The Impact of In-service Training within Social Services

Summary In-service training within social service agencies is recognizedas a key means through which staff are provided with the necessaryknowledge and skills to improve overall agency performance andachieve the objectives of social policy. Furthermore, reportsof training expenditure within social services departments inthe UK suggest increasing amounts of monies are invested insuch activity in order to meet the changing demands placed onsocial care and greater expectations for higher standards inservice delivery. Yet to what extent is the faith placed inmuch of this training by social service agencies actually justified?In short, how much do we know about the actual impact of in-servicetraining within social service organizations in terms of itachieving the aims set by policy makers? This article attemptsto answer this question in order to assist in the developmentof a far more empirically based framework for understandingtraining processes within social service agencies. A reviewof the literature for studies published between 1974 and 1997detailing an evaluation of in-service training programmes withinsocial service agencies identified only 20 such studies. Problemsassociated with both the evaluative criteria utilized and theresearch methodologies employed in these studies meant thatin many instances conclusions regarding the actual impact oftraining could only be tentatively judged. As a result, an analysisof these studies found that although training may have an impacton trainees in terms of satisfaction or knowledge gain, resultsregarding impact on behaviour are far more inconclusive. Inaddition it is not at all certain that such training will necessarilyresult in changes in performance back in the workplace. Thefindings from the review suggest far more research is requiredof sufficient rigour to underpin our knowledge in this importantarea.     

Practice Evaluation of Community Initiatives for Social Service Delivery in a Deprived Neighborhood in Scotland

ABSTRACT

Improving social service in local communities is a complex undertaking. Over the past few decades, the performance and sustainability of community initiatives have been questioned, while such factors as a lack of funding, insufficient community involvement, unsatisfactory community service, and lack of awareness of the impact of community initiatives have restricted community development. From a case study of community operations in Scotland, this article provides insights into how social service delivery is organized in the absence of public capital. This study utilized data from semi-structured in-depth interviews with a sample of 76 participants from a deprived area in Scotland, including community management team members (n = 6), local residents (n = 52) and community partners (n = 18). The findings illustrated how participants of all ages, local organizations, policy makers, funders and media came together to create a cohesive and responsive community environment. Residents' needs and funders' demands were identified. Results further revealed that a Community Partnership Mechanism helped strengthen the social service network and create flexible social services. Service benefits included improved resident wellbeing in the context of less government intervention. Future implications include suggestions for government and other stakeholders involved in community reform to focus on service recipient skill building and tracking changes between the indicators and service provision.